


emotional support

by Anonymous



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Canon Compliant, M/M, and jack is concerned, pre-3.10 relationship discussions, secrets make bitty stressed out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-14
Updated: 2016-10-14
Packaged: 2018-08-22 08:16:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,417
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8279152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: When stress baking isn’t working, try consulting your boyfriend for emotional support.





	

**Author's Note:**

> In celebration of reaching 1,000 followers on this crazy blog of mine, I’m writing as many fics as possible in one week! I’ve been doing all requests so far, but today’s fic was actually just something my brain demanded of me: a pre-3.10 zimbits fic about Jack being worried about Bitty’s stress levels and the two of them being domestic together in Providence. <3

   Bitty wasn’t sure how long he had been standing at the counter and staring at the open flour bag, but when the front door of the apartment creaked open, he startled into awareness. He looked down at where his hand gripped the counter and then at the ingredients arrayed all around him and realized that if Jack was back from his morning skate, then he had to have been standing around for at least an hour. He had been planning on making chicken and waffles to be ready when Jack got back from his practice. 

    “Bits?” Jack called from the entryway. Bitty heard his gear bag hit the floor and footsteps. Before he could find his voice or make any sense of the mess he’d started in the kitchen, Jack was there, hovering in the open door jamb. Jack took in the bag of flour and carton of eggs with a frown. “Hey, Bits, what’s wrong?”

    “Oh, nothing,” Bitty said brightly, but even he could hear the edge of untruth in his voice. Jack waited, leaning against the wall and Bitty sighed, letting his shoulders droop. He turned his back to the kitchen counter and crossed his arms. “I just lost track of time is all. How was practice?”

    “It was fine,” Jack said. He crossed the kitchen to Bitty and rested his hands on Bitty’s slim hips, but didn’t pull him into a hug. Bitty was inordinately grateful. He might start crying if Jack hugged him and he really had no good reason to cry. Just a failed attempt at waffles and a lost morning…and, well. “What’s wrong?”

    Bitty ran his hands up Jack’s arms and Jack obliged him by stepping forward into his space. Bitty let his hands rest on Jack’s shoulders and looked shyly up at him. It had been three months since they’d made it official, but it was still a little dizzying sometimes to Bitty that he got to do this with Jack. That he got _Jack_.

    “I guess I’m just stressed out,” he confessed. “Midterms last week and then the season really kicking into drive just have me at my wits’ end.”

    Jack dropped a kiss on Bitty’s head and Bitty burrowed himself into Jack’s chest, feeling stable enough to hug him without risking waterworks now, the moment of fragility passed.

    “Is that all?” Jack asked, his voice close and quiet to Bitty’s ear. Bitty swallowed, but didn’t answer right away. “I saw Holster complaining on the group chat that you haven’t really been baking much this past week. Usually you’d have baked about twenty pies a day to get you through midterms.”

    “Jack Zimmermann, I have never baked twenty pies in a day!” Bitty protested, hitting his chest lightly. Jack smiled and squeezed his hips, stepping away. He reached in the cupboard next to the sink and Bitty frowned at him. “What are you doing?”

    “If you don’t feel like making anything, I’m just gonna make a shake,” he said.

    “Oh, Jack! No!” Bitty said. “I can do it. I just got…sidetracked.”

    Jack already had the protein powder in hand. He looked unconvinced.

    “Bits, you don’t have to make me anything,” Jack said. “It’s fine.”

    Bitty frowned even harder.

    “I know I don’t,” he said. “I want to. I _like_ making you food.”

    Jack set the protein powder on the counter and reached for Bitty again, drawing him in close with a firm grip on his arm. He kissed Bitty’s forehead and ran his thumb along his jawline before leaning down to kiss him properly.

    “How about a compromise?” Jack asked. “We can go to that bistro around the corner and grab something to bring back to the apartment.”

    Bitty sighed and grabbed Jack’s wrist to keep his hand close to his face, leaning into the touch. Jack allowed him a moment of stillness before gently poking his hip.

    “C’mon, I’m starving,” he said. “Put your coat on and let’s get to it.”

    Bitty skittered away from his poke and rubbed his hip with a dramatic huff while heading to the foyer to grab his coat and shoes. While he was slipping them on, Jack came up behind him and snuck a kiss. Bitty swatted him away.

    “Let’s make this quick,” he said. “I know it’s freezing outside.”

    “Bits, it’s barely below 70 today,” Jack said, shaking his head as Bitty pulled a scarf around his neck.

    “Brrr,” Bitty said, more to make Jack laugh than because it was actually true. Mostly Bitty just liked an excuse to wear his new scarf, but he would never say so. It was much safer to let Jack believe he was actually cold and not just looking to be fashionable. Less chirping material.

    “I’ll warm you up when we get back, eh?” Jack said as he opened the door. Bitty decided there were plenty of other benefits to pretending to be cold, too. He smiled at Jack and just barely resisted grabbing his hand. They made their way down the quiet hallway together, hands not holding, but shoulders brushing a little too closely.

    Later, after they had made it back with a full bag food from the bistro, they curled up on the couch together so Jack could watch highlights and then tape for that night’s game. Bitty was ostensibly studying his French flashcards, but in practice was just enjoying the warmth of his head in Jack’s lap and Jack fingers in his hair.

    “I’m going to head to bed, Bits,” Jack said at one point, long after Bitty had given up the pretense of studying. Bitty sighed and stretched his limbs, feet popping, before sitting up. He ran a hand through his hair, but he could tell it was hopeless. Jack was smiling at him in that soft, hazy kind of way that made Bitty feel warm all over. He leaned back to kiss Jack and then scooted over so Jack could stand without being caught in the blanket Bitty was curled up in.

    Jack stood, but lingered. Bitty had already let his head fall back on the arm of the couch, drifting into a half-sleep again.

    “Hey, Bits,” Jack said quietly, almost a whisper. His hand gently shook Bitty’s shoulder and Bitty opened one eye to look up at him. “Why don’t you come with me?”

    “Don’t wanna mess up your routine, Jack,” Bitty said, his eyes sliding shut again. He snuggled into the couch a little further. Jack was so quiet that Bitty thought he had left for the bedroom, but then in one sudden swoop, Bitty was in Jack’s arms and being carried bridal-style to the bedroom.

    “Jack!” he cried in surprise. Jack gripped him a little tighter, kicking the door open to the bedroom and then gently laying Bitty down on the bed with a small grunt of effort. Bitty pouted up at him. “I was fine on the couch.”

    Jack leaned over him, caging him on either side with his arms, and kissed him, deep and slow. Bitty reached up to thread a hand through Jack’s hair and pulled him down. Jack allowed it for a few moments and then gently disentangled himself.

    “Naptime, Bits,” he scolded, with a teasing glint in his eye. Bitty scowled at him and sat up so he could take his pants off before sliding quickly under the covers.

    “You’re the one who brought me in here,” he said as Jack slid in next to him, shirtless and warm. Jack fiddled with his phone, setting an alarm, and then sank down next to Bitty on the pillows. Bitty turned on his side and kissed Jack’s shoulder, crowding closer to Jack, but not plastering himself all over him. Neither of them could sleep when they were all tangled up in each other and Jack’s pre-game naps were sacrosanct.

    “Yeah, I did,” Jack said softly and leaned over for a kiss before settling back down. Bitty had always envied Jack his ability to fall asleep at will. He used to do it on the bus too during the long hauls, just tip his head back and few minutes later, be snoring softly. Bitty always took a lot more coaxing to fall asleep.

   When he was a kid, his mom had to read him bedtime stories twice over to get him to calm down enough to even consider sleep and sometimes even then he’d stay up half the night, vibrating with energy in bed. Now, as he lay next to Jack, he felt the same fitful energy roiling under his skin, but he closed his eyes and counted silently to himself, willing sleep to come. He was exhausted. So, so exhausted.  

    He wasn’t sure if he ever truly fell asleep, but he drifted in and out of drowsiness for the next hour and a half. Jack stirred at one point, but only to throw an arm around Bitty’s waist and drag him closer. Jack wasn’t normally the snuggly type while sleeping, but Bitty didn’t mind. When Jack’s first alarm went off later in the afternoon, Bitty felt as though someone had poured sand into his head. Jack pulled away momentarily to snooze his alarm and then came back, tucking himself even closer against Bitty’s back and pressing a warm, dry kiss to the side of his throat. Bitty turned in his arms so he could kiss him properly.

    “Did you sleep at all?” Jack asked.

    “A little,” Bitty said. “I didn’t wake you or anything, did I?”

    “No, it was nice,” Jack said. “Having you here. I might make you napping with me part of my normal routine.”

    Bitty snorted in laughter and Jack smiled, clearly pleased with himself. They settled against each other in a moment of quiet relaxation. Bitty tilted his head back to look at Jack and sighed softly, before letting the words that had been eating him alive all morning and afternoon finally escape.

    “Mama called this morning,” he said. Jack shifted in the bed next to him and his arm pulled Bitty a little closer, warm and heavy on his hip. Jack waited for him to continue without a word. Bitty almost thought he’d drifted off to sleep again but when he chanced a look up at his face again, Jack was looking back at him, forehead wrinkled with concern.

    “And?” he prompted.

    Bitty swallowed hard and looked away. He had been so thrown by it this morning that he hadn’t fully digested it yet.

    “I think…” he trailed off, biting his lip. “I think she found my vlog.”

    “Oh,” Jack inhaled, obviously surprised.

    “I can’t -” Bitty stopped and took a deep breath. “I don’t really know what it was, but something she said this morning was just so…familiar. And then it hit me after I hung up that I said the exact thing in my vlog last week about always making sure to sift your sugar thoroughly before mixing it in and don’t you think it’s strange she just happens to throw that in conversation? I mean, it’s not like I need a reminder or anything.”

    Jack seemed a little overwhelmed by the sudden floodgate of words from Bitty and Bitty sighed, throwing his head back on the pillow.

    “Sorry,” he said. “This isn’t what you need to be talking about before a game.”

    “It’s alright,” Jack said. “I was worried about you. I’d rather know what was bothering you than not.”

    Jack found his hand under the blanket and laced their fingers together.

    “Bits,” he said and waited until Bitty looked over to him to continue. “She loves you. I’m sure she was just trying to be supportive.”

    Bitty frowned and looked down at their joined hands before sighing.

    “Yeah, maybe,” Bitty said, although he wasn’t sure if he believed it.

    “Have you thought any more about coming out to them?” Jack asked.

    “No,” Bitty lied. “It’s not the right time.”

    It was Jack’s turn to frown, but he didn’t argue with Bitty. He just squeezed his hand and pulled Bitty closer, nuzzling a few kisses into his hair and then his neck and finally, kissing him sweetly on the mouth.

    “What about telling the boys?” Jack asked, after a comfortable silence had fallen between them. “That way you won’t have to lie about where you are all the time at least.”

    “I -” Bitty started. “No, Jack. It’s fine. They’re all a bunch of blabbermouths. I mean, I love them, but…I’m fine.”

    “Bittle,” Jack said, using his Captain voice, his eyes stern. “They’re your team. Our team. They’d have our backs.”

    Bitty cuddled closer to Jack and buried his head in his chest, hugging him close.

    “Yeah,” Bitty agreed. “But maybe I’m not ready to burst the bubble yet, okay?”

    Jack’s lips pressed together as though he was preparing to argue but then Bitty’s phone vibrated loudly on the nightstand table and the moment passed. Bitty reached over to grab his phone and thumbed it open to find several waiting texts. He sat up up, crossing his legs underneath himself with Jack beside him. When he looked up again, Jack was studying him closely.

    “What?” he asked.

    “It’s just…” Jack said, brow furrowed. “You don’t have to do this alone, Bits.”

    Bitty put his phone to the side so he could lean down to kiss Jack.

    “Oh, honey,” he said. “I’m fine, I swear.”

    “Okay, I believe you,” Jack said. “Just…think about it, okay?”

    Bitty’s phone buzzed again, quieter this time and Bitty reached for it instinctively.

    “Of course, sweetheart,” he agreed, burying his face in his phone a moment later to hide his unease. Jack’s phone sounded another alarm a few moments later, warning them both to get a move on.

     “Oh Lord, look how late it is,” Bitty said, glancing up from the group chat that he was scrolling through to look at the clock. “If I don’t get started on your sandwich, you’re gonna be late.”

    Bitty swung his legs out of bed and looked back at Jack, who was sitting on the edge of bed.

    “Any special requests for jam tonight?” he asked.

    Jack grinned.

    “I liked the raspberry,” he said, levering himself out of bed and towards the closet to get dressed. Bitty allowed himself a full two seconds to admire the generous curve of Jack’s ass in his boxer briefs before he nodded to himself and turned to go to the kitchen. He already had a special message in mind for his customary pre-game note for Jack.

**Author's Note:**

> i feel like from 3.10/11 that they had had some form of the argument/discussion about telling people before, so this has been kind of fomenting in my brain for a while! i feel like bitty would probably deflect the whole thing until it really just explodes in 3.10, but it definitely is *there* the whole time.


End file.
